Surface Tension

The USU Life Sciences Building is the most recent and extensive project completed on the campus of Utah State University. This 103,000 square foot building includes a 300-seat lecture hall, 13 teaching laboratories, collaborative research laboratories, student study spaces and an outdoor teaching laboratory garden. It is constructed with a five-story laboratory research tower designed to limit floor vibrations. Adjacent to this tower is a four-story classroom and office area. The building is constructed as a steel frame building with a lateral force resisting system consisting of steel buckling-restrained braced frames. A few interesting characteristics and details of the building include an exterior cladding system comprised of a combination of brick, glass fiber-reinforced concrete panels, metal panels and glass curtain wall, a pre-cast concrete tread grand stair and a 30-foot art glass wall entitled, “Surface Tension”.

The challenges of this project proved to be complex, but were met with solutions that were innovative and significant. Steel Buckling-Restrained Braced frames were used differently than is typical, and led to an overall savings for the project. Because of the high seismic area where the project is located, special detail was necessary to transfer seismic forces from the cantilevered diaphragms to the steel braced frames. The cantilevers not only needed to be strong enough to carry loads, but be stiff enough to not affect the cladding. This required additional coordination with the architect to ensure a seamless architectural design. This state of the art facility benefits students, faculty, researchers, and community alike, both today and for years to come..